Biggest Bid Projection Of My Career

[Leroy]

Cantcha bid it t and m? or maybe give a range?

 

[southsoundtree]

What happens if you don't get this bid?
Enough other work?

If it seems like it's inaccessible for some reason, which it may be, find someone who makes 'inaccessible' to be accessible.

Loggers have to log after windstorms. Probably makes some of them amazing at it, and most of the average at it.

When I was an employee, we had an antique 1965 Garrett 16, 65 hp skidder, a little thing... When anchored to a tree, the winch had a whole lot of COME HERE NOW!!

Not something I get to utilize in day to day residential tree work.

 

[Matt15194]

Your project is totally doable if you have the right equipment and very good operators. I do projects in similar areas for road right of ways. Having the right tools and knowledge is were it is at. For a project like this if you have the right equipment you while get it efficiently however the right machines and attachments can be damn hard to come by and experienced operators are few and far. Sleep slopes like that are never fun. Good equipment operators and winches will get it done. 20 inch feller buncher attachment, a forestry mulcher and maybe a dangle saw for a 110-120 HP tracked skid loader should manage, assuming you can leave mulch on site. Grass usually will grow through mulch and with a good mulching operator the property owner can mower over the mulch. We charge extra for the steep slope work as I don't need any more grey hair. At least you wont have to run traffic control and work with open travel lanes just feet away in blind curves. Those steep slopes can bring out some new sentences and paragraphs of four letter words when things go badly. Any repairs or break downs get real fun like a track off, blown hoses, ran out of fuel from steep slope and the list goes on and on

If burning suites don't be scared of it. Florida is burn friendly just get a permit from division of forestry it only takes a phone call here. If you have a loader or dozer on sight and are reasonable competent you will be fine. Those machines are very effective and building fire breaks. If you wait till spring you will get into the heart of fire season here which is just starting in central FL at least.

Best of luck to you

 

[Lumberjack]

I had a customer ~13 years ago that wanted to use a helicopter on a job and had the means to do so. I talked them in to using a crane instead, the damage to the driveway was minimal compared to the $40-50k in savings. Remember, you don't make money handling money, a $60k bid to remove those trees with a helicopter could be less profitable than a $30k bid doing it by hand (or other means, for example).


Regarding the 17 acres... if burning is allowed, there's no way grinding is going to be anywhere remotely near a viable strategy money wise. A 17 acre site is less than a month's worth of work for an excavator and dozer. Logging/getting rid of the wood to a mill is likely to be pointless since I imagine the wood market is exceedingly flooded after the hurricane.

To give you an idea, in 2015 or 2016, clearing 19 acres of a partially logged site, then establishing some grass coverage (future industrial site build, not a yard) went for $49k.


Carly is awake, time to play with her.

 

[hseII]

I am down in the Florida Panhandle, do I g relief work for Hurricane Michael. I met a local contractor today that brought me to a 17 acre property outside of town to look at. I would say 80% to 90% of the trees on the property are blown over or snapped in half. There are 16 hardwood trees on a steep sandy slope behind the house that must come out, canal at the bottom of the slope, but no marine contractor access.

The client wants the property cleaned up, and all of the material delt with. Thousands of trees. All hardwood, I didn't see a pine on site.

The only way I can think of getting the trees out of the back it a helicopter.

I think I am going to need a full size skidder in site, as well as a tub or horizontal grinder.

I guess my question is this.

Hey all you big guys!!! How do you approach jobs that are going to be in the 6 figures? How do you price that much labor and equiptment? How do you estimate time till completion on a project of that kind of scale? I can possibly keep 10 guys busy for a month. But how do I not loose my ass in the mean time?

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As for the 16 trees in no-man’s-land,

1. How far is the distance to cross the canal?
Can a temporary bridge be installed? This is common on land around here that has to be logged/cleared where there is a creek.

Or,

2. Is the canal large enough for a barge?


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[hseII]

I had a customer ~13 years ago that wanted to use a helicopter on a job and had the means to do so. I talked them in to using a crane instead, the damage to the driveway was minimal compared to the $40-50k in savings. Remember, you don't make money handling money, a $60k bid to remove those trees with a helicopter could be less profitable than a $30k bid doing it by hand (or other means, for example).


Regarding the 17 acres... if burning is allowed, there's no way grinding is going to be anywhere remotely near a viable strategy money wise. A 17 acre site is less than a month's worth of work for an excavator and dozer. Logging/getting rid of the wood to a mill is likely to be pointless since I imagine the wood market is exceedingly flooded after the hurricane.

To give you an idea, in 2015 or 2016, clearing 19 acres of a partially logged site, then establishing some grass coverage (future industrial site build, not a yard) went for $49k.


Carly is awake, time to play with her.

Agreed.

Grinding is a massive Expense in comparison to controlled burning.


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[Matt15194]

I wouldn't rule out a chopper if you must remove from slopes for processing without a site visit. I know a HVAC contractor that sets the refrigeration and A/C units for Publix supermarkets with a chopper because is significantly more efficient then a crane. Though you have to have the crew to support the productivity. They even pay to bring the chopper from Georgia to central FL to do it and still save big money. I think they are taking a one to two weeks of long reach crane work and completing in less then or about two days.

Even loggers use choppers for difficult to access areas but it must be high value timber. There was a logger in South West Florida that used one to recover wood from a lake bottom. Must of been some high value timber.

 

[Lumberjack]

I didn't say using a helicopter was a bad idea, only that the coolness of using one vs profit in your pocket doing it other ways is something to consider.

Tyler saying he's going to need a skidder, grinder, 10 guys, and a month leads me to think he's soundly out of his depth. Nothing wrong with that either, you never learn with blinders on, but it sounds like he's going to quickly price himself out of being back on the job. If he's working for the contractor, the contractor is going to mark up the price before the property owner sees it.

All this being said with me never having been to the site, seen pictures, nor talked to the customer/contractor.

 

[Matt15194]

I agree with lumber jack. Job is probably already gone as Tylor has not posted back in a few days. I agree this is likely a job for a land clearing or logging company probably. For a "tree service" type company to be cost effective would be difficult.

Even utilizing a ctl and all the attachments is a 200K investment and that type of attachments are damn hard and expensive to rent. If you already have this type of equipment this could be a nice medium size job. Yes I have enough experience for this work to not be as fun as it used to be.

These are also the type of jobs that can be difficult to collect payment on after a storm especially if working through another contractor.

 

[TimBr]

@Tyler Durden; Did you see @Lumberjack's posts above? He's the gentleman that I was suggesting you seek the advice of earlier in this thread. Also, I think all the folks participating in the thread would like to hear how things are going. It's ok if you did not get the work. Stuff happens.

Tim